


Method Acting

by BrookeWritesSometimes



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Eventual Confession, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, I’m probably giving Yu freckles again.. you know the drill, M/M, Pining, There’s a lot of Rise/Yosuke friendship in later chapters, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, but Yosuke doesn’t really realize he’s pining, these are mostly going to be connected one-shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:20:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28787091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrookeWritesSometimes/pseuds/BrookeWritesSometimes
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple favor. One little thing that would blow over in a week.What it was not supposed to be was the start of a massive snowball of events ending in something so clichè that it almost felt unbelievable.Though, Yosuke wasn’t exactly complaining.Formerly titled ‘It Doesn’t Have to Mean Anything (Oh, but it Does). It felt like too long and clunky of a title so I changed it to something shorter.On hiatus for a bit while I work on other projects.
Relationships: Hanamura Yosuke/Narukami Yu, Hanamura Yosuke/Persona 4 Protagonist, Hanamura Yosuke/Seta Souji
Comments: 9
Kudos: 56





	1. It Doesn’t Mean Anything

**Author's Note:**

> I almost named this fic peepeepoopoo bc I didn’t have a title
> 
> Also warning: I haven’t actually finished the game (I’m only on Kanji’s dungeon) so I apologize if the timeline doesn’t add up or some characters are ooc 
> 
> Also AA THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL OF THE NICE COMMENTS ON MY LAST FIC🥺🥺 I was really insecure when I posted it and that made me feel a lot better about everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yu wants Rise to stop flirting with him, and Yosuke agrees to pretend to date him to make her stop.

It was a hot summer afternoon, and Yosuke had never been more thankful for Yu’s air conditioner and apparent stockpile of frozen treats. Of course that wasn’t the only reason he’d decided to come over today, but having a tub of ice cream to combat the uncomfortable humidity in the air was certainly a nice bonus.

“Sooooo, what’d you get on the test yesterday?” Yosuke asked, plopping himself down onto Yu’s futon and shoveling another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. He was hoping to feel better about his own score, but he quickly realized there wasn’t much of a point in his inquiry. After all, there’s no way that Yu Narukami, Mr. Perfect himself, could have failed a quiz as badly as he had.

“You should know, you copied half of the answers off of me.” Despite his face remaining as blank as ever, Yosuke could see faint hints of a smile when he looked deeper. That was something he’d learned how to do with just how frequently Yu’s poker face showed up, and it was nice to know what he was truly feeling.

“Oh come on, that was only a few! Just tell me what you got!” Yosuke begged exaggeratedly, and Yu actually smiled this time. It was pleasant and calming, just like it always was whenever he smiled.

..Not that he was watching Yu smile or anything.

Because that was weird.

“I got an eighty percent. I’m assuming that you-” Yu cut himself off as his phone buzzed what Yosuke immediately recognized to be a text notification sound. He could only hope that it was only a friendly message and not something relating to the Midnight Channel, but he didn’t let his worries get too large. It wasn’t raining or foggy, after all, and if it was anything serious he likely would have received a message as well. Or at least he _hoped_ that the rest of the group would have bothered to send him a message for something that important.

“Who’s it from?” Yosuke asked, completely out of curiosity rather than worry at this point. It could have been a girl, after all; of course he’d be curious about that! 

“It’s..” Yu started as he pulled his phone out of his pocket to see what had been sent. “ _Oh_.” His face dropped immediately, and Yosuke’s worries flared right back up. Was someone hurt? Why did he look so upset? 

But as he peered over Yu’s shoulder to read the screen, curiosity getting the better of him yet again, it only confused him more. 

Rise: _uploaded image0.jpg_

“Why do you look so upset, Partner? It’s just Rise.” he asked, wanting to make sure that everything was okay, and Yu only sighed.

“Right.. it’s just Rise,” Yu repeated. He looked even worse than before, and Yosuke only got more worried. Was something going on between them? He hated seeing Yu upset like this, and having no idea what was going on only made it worse. He opened his mouth to question him further, but stopped himself as yet another notification went off.

Rise: do i look good senpai?? ;)

_Woah woah woah_ , so that’s what was going on? It shouldn’t have been all that surprising given all the flirting she had been doing for the past month or so, but that didn’t stop Yosuke from being jealous. Stupid Yu could have any chick he wanted, and they’d gone after the same one? And he hadn’t even bothered to tell him about it? Though Yosuke still didn’t completely understand why Yu was this upset over getting a suggestive text, at least it was that and nothing more serious.

And just when he thought he couldn’t get any more confused, Yu _opened_ the picture right in front of him.

Yosuke’s eyes had never been more glued to something as he waited for whatever Rise had sent to load. His mind was running wild with different risqué pictures, and it felt like hours had passed before the thing actually loaded.

..It was just a picture of her in a swimsuit.

And a one piece swimsuit at that.

“Don’t get the wrong idea, she sends me this sort of stuff all the time. We aren’t dating.” Now Yosuke was the one upset, his dreams of seeing a risqué picture of Rise completely crushed. At least he still had a chance with her because she wasn’t dating Yu..? A chance so slim that it basically didn’t exist, but it was still technically a chance.

“Dude, don’t just get me all excited like that! I was expecting something .. _you know!”_ Yosuke, defeated and disappointed, took another bite of ice cream as he tried to feel better about what had just happened.

“If I’d expected anything like that, why would I have opened it in front of you?” Yu replied blankly as he started to type up a response, deleting and retyping it more times than Yosuke could count.

“Yeah that’s..fair, I guess. But still!” Yosuke watched in silence as he stared blankly at the picture on the screen. He really wished he was with her right now; not even for perverted reasons, but because swimming was starting to sound amazing right now as the amount of ice cream he had less was rapidly decreasing. “Man, why does she only send that sort of stuff to you? You already have enough people fangirling over you as-is, did you really have to take Rise too?” Yosuke sulked as he watched Yu finally finish his response, a very punctual ‘You look nice.’ that he couldn’t help but chuckle at.

“Trust me, I wish she wouldn’t,” Yu mumbled under his breath, pressing the power button on his phone and deciding to ignore the notification that came a few seconds later. Yosuke was confused as to why he seemed so disappointed for a bit, before it hit him. Obviously he was tired of being friend zoned by her, right? That would explain everything! Though he still wasn’t completely sure why Yu didn’t just ask her out— her flirting was about as subtle to a brick to the face, after all, and there’s no way that Yu didn’t pick up on it. Maybe he was just too nervous? Aww, that was cute- nononono, wrong word. It was.. endearing. It was endearing to imagine his partner being nervous over a girl because of how fearless he normally was. There, crisis averted.

“Ohhh, I getcha. C’mon, just tell her how you feel! She’s clearly into you, partner! You nervous or something?” He teased, expecting some sort of embarrassed nod from the other boy, but instead he only got an inexpressive stare.

“No, I don’t think you get it. I want her to stop because I’m _not_ interested in her.” He.. what? In retrospect he probably should have seen this coming with how strange Yu could be, but that was one he didn’t expect. He could go out with _Rise_ , a person that almost every teenage boy would sell an organ just to be able to _talk_ to, but he simply didn’t want to. 

Classic Yu.

“How can you not be interested in her!? She’s literally perfect! Her waist and chest-”

“Yeah yeah, I get it. She’s not my type, though,” Yu cut him off. There was a strange look on his face that Yosuke tried and failed to decipher, but it didn’t appear to be good. He was going to ask about it but instead opted to be silent. Maybe he’d just learned to look a little too deep into Yu’s facial expressions (or lack thereof) and nothing was wrong at all.

He hoped that was the case, anyway.

Yu’s phone buzzed yet again after a few seconds, and he wordlessly switched it to silent mode. 

“Dude, I’m starting to think that your ‘type’ doesn’t exist,” Yu didn’t disagree about that, and he continued, “But why don’t you just reject her if you’re not interested?”

“She hasn’t actually asked me out, so I can’t really reject her. I’ve tried dropping hints but she still isn’t stopping. I don’t want to directly tell her that she’s being annoying, though, so I’ll just put up with it for now.” That.. actually made a lot of sense now that he thought about it. Rise tended to flirt with Yu a lot, but he’d never done the same in return. Yosuke had always viewed her doing that as something to be jealous of, but seeing it from the perspective of someone who didn’t want it, he could almost feel how uncomfortable it was.

“Oh. That sucks, man.” Yosuke wished he could have done more to help, but it was the only thing he could think of to say. It’s not like he could relate to the problem of having _too many_ girls flirting with him, after all. “Maybe you could try.. um…” he opened his mouth to say something else, not wanting to offer such an insignificant response, until he realized that he didn’t have anything else to say. He cared, he really did, but he couldn’t find a way to express it very well. “....ignoring her? Or, um, asking her to stop? Oh wait, you just said that you don’t want to do that. Uh..” And somehow, in classic Yosuke fashion, he’d only managed to make everything worse. He went to go take another bite of ice cream to calm his anxiety, but was only met with disappointment and an empty container.

“I would, but I don’t want to lose her as a friend or for it to interfere with the team. It’s really not a big deal though, I promise. I’m sorry for worrying you.” Yu flashed him a smile, but something felt off about it. Once again he was starting to wonder if he was simply overthinking his partner’s facial expressions, but it seemed.. fake. It almost looked as if he was still upset and was trying to hide it, and that only made Yosuke want to help him even more. “By the way, there’s more ice cream in the freezer if you want it,” he added.

“I’m gonna eat _all_ of your food, I’m not Chie!” Another smile, this one definitely not fake, and Yosuke got so caught up in staring at it that he almost forgot about the situation at hand. “And don’t apologize, it’s clearly hurting you. You’re my Partner, I can’t just let you suffer like this!”

“I’m really not, it’s-”

“Shut up, you’re not going to fool me. She’s clearly upsetting you, and I’m going to help fix it.” Yosuke expected some sort of argument or further denying the problem, (that was another thing he tended to notice with Yu; he didn’t like to admit it when something was bothering him) but thankfully he didn’t. Instead he merely stared down at his phone screen, which was flashing a new message. 

Rise: hey you dont have a girlfriend do u?☹️🥺

“God, she’s.. really upfront, isn’t she?” Yosuke tried not to be jealous, he really did, but he couldn’t help it. Rise, the girl of his dreams, was chasing after his best friend; how could he _not_ be jealous? 

“Yup. I can’t believe she hasn’t just asked me straight up yet.” Yu began to type up another response, this one much shorter with a simple ‘No,’ but that gave Yosuke an idea.

“Wait, don’t send that yet,” Yu seemed confused, but moved his finger away from the send button regardless. “Maybe you could just lie and say that you do have a girlfriend? She wouldn’t flirt with someone who’s taken, right?” Yosuke really shouldn’t have felt as proud as he was with that solution, but he was. He hadn’t expected to actually find any way to fix the problem, but that seemed like a good enough idea. Yu seemed to think so as well, deleting the word he had typed, before he abruptly stopped.

“Wouldn’t that just cause more problems, though? And I promise you it’s not a big deal, you don’t have to-”

“Dude, I’m not dumb. This is clearly upsetting you. And, um, what do you mean?” Yosuke stared at him in confusion. Was there some sort of flaw that he’d missed in that plan? Probably, he wasn’t exactly the best at coming up with ideas.

“Well she’s probably going to ask who it is, and I’m not going to have an answer,” Yu replied back, hints of frustration at this whole scenario behind his neutral expression. That made sense now that Yosuke thought about it, and he felt like an idiot for now considering it beforehand.

“You’re.. probably right. Dammit.” Yosuke sighed, looking down and feeling angry at himself for not having any other solution. His partner was in pain, and he couldn’t even do anything about it. His thoughts were going so quickly that he couldn’t even keep up with them, but eventually he managed to think of another idea, this one hopefully actually helping in some way

“Okay, well maybe you could just get an actual girlfriend..? You’ve got, like, the whole school chasing after you, I’m sure you can find someone.” It was hard to tell for sure, but that idea only seemed to make Yu feel even _worse._ He was gripping the sides of his phone screen tightly and taking a few deep breaths in and out, and Yosuke feared that he’d done something wrong once again. God, could he even do anything right? And this time he couldn’t even shovel more ice cream into his mouth to calm down because there wasn’t any left. 

But, to Yosuke’s shock, his partner didn’t seem angry or even annoyed at him. He still looked.. vaguely upset in a way that was hard to describe, but he definitely wasn’t angry.

“Can’t,” Yu mumbled under his breath after a few seconds of silence. Really, that was it? He knew that Yu was a man of few words, but _wow_. 

“Why not? It’s not like you don’t have any options.” Yu looked over at him, and for a brief moment Yosuke felt like he had seen something he wasn’t supposed to. He looked vulnerable and upset, as if something was making him incredibly uncomfortable. He wanted to ask about it, he really did, but by the time he’d managed to open his mouth to say anything Yu had looked away. Yosuke attributed it to the Rise situation, but he wasn’t completely sure that was all it had to do with.

“I- I just don’t want one. And I don’t want to lead someone on for someone simply for my own gain.” Yu looked back up at him, his expression neutral instead of distressed, though Yosuke barely processed that over his own shock.

“Wh- why would you _not_ want a girlfriend?” That came off ruder than he’d anticipated, though he couldn’t really help it. Yosuke had always wondered why Yu never entered a relationship with anyone despite the mobs of girls throwing themselves at him every second of every day, and the answer was that he just.. didn’t want one? _Why_??

“Well, um..” Yu seemed stumped, almost as if he was confused by his own reasoning, before finally managing to spit out, “They’re not my type.”

“The _entire school_ isn’t your type? What even _is_ your ‘type?’” Yu shot him a glare, an actual glare and not one he had to go through dozens of mental hoops to decipher, and Yosuke decided to shut his mouth. He still had so many more questions, including why the question had made him angry in the first place, but keeping a bit of curiosity to himself was significantly better than ending up dead at the hands of his own Partner.

“That doesn’t matter, the point is that I don’t want one,” he stated simply, avoiding eye contact once again.

“Okay, whatever. Well if you don’t want to get a girlfriend and you can’t lie about having one, maybe you could just… um…” Again, he’d spoken without having an actual idea to accompany his words. He tried thinking of something else, way harder than he really needed to, but no other ideas came up.

“I appreciate that you’re trying to help but I promise it isn’t a big deal. I could just ask her to stop if it was that serious.” 

Yosuke didn’t believe that for a second, not with how upset he looked earlier, but he didn’t want to argue any further. He didn’t want to be annoying or get another terrifying glare, (which he still didn’t understand why he’d received in the first place) after all.

“Alright, whatever you say.” 

“Thanks.” Once again it sounded disingenuous, but Yosuke shrugged it off. Maybe he was just looking too far into things? Or even if that wasn’t the case, it wasn’t his place to argue. Another message quickly flared up on the screen, and it was no mystery who it was from.

Rise: senpaiiii r u ok? Am I bothering u?🥺🥰🥰💕

Yu stared at the screen again, and sighed with disappointment. He hated seeing Yu suffer like this, even despite his adamant denial that it was more than a minor annoyance. Yosuke felt obligated to come up with another solution. Yu was clearly upset, and he already felt awful enough for not noticing this problem before. Eventually he managed to come up with one, though he wasn’t completely sure it was a good plan.

“You know, maybe you could get a girl to pretend to be your girlfriend just to avoid her? It sounds like some clichè trope, but it just might work.” Yosuke could only hope that there wasn’t a huge flaw with this plan as well, but that didn’t seem to be the case judging by the look Yu gave him. It was a genuine smile, almost blinding from how bright it was, and Yosuke started to worry just how big the Rise issue actually was for him to be this thankful over a mere idea.

He then promptly looked away from said smile, because he was getting a little too invested in it.

“That’s a good idea, actually. Thanks, Yosuke.” Yu unlocked his phone once again and clicked out of Rise’s message to the contacts screen, seemingly to message one of the other team members about the idea. “Who should I ask, though? I don’t want any of them to get the wrong idea, that’ll only make things worse.” Yosuke would have reassured him that it would be fine or have actually answered his question, if it wasn’t for Yu’s contact names distracting him completely. He hadn’t meant to pry, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him. Surely he had to have a crush on _someone_ , right? He was one of the most popular people in the entire school, obviously there had to be someone he was harboring feelings towards, even despite his denial of that very thing. His eyes scanned the list of names for some sort of cheesy nickname or heart emoji to indicate hidden feelings, but there didn’t seem to be any. They were all simply the person’s first name followed by their last name, which wasn’t too surprising given how formal he tended to be. 

..But then he got to his own.

It was simply labeled ‘partner.’ No name, no capitalization, just the dumb nickname Yosuke had given him back in April. To say that made him happy would have certainly been an understatement, especially with the way he could feel himself smile unintentionally. It was really- dammit, what was that word again? Oh, right. It was really _endearing_ (not cute. It was absolutely not cute because that was way too romantic of a word to use while describing a male, especially his best friend of all people) that Yu had gone out of his way to make his contact name different. Not Chie’s, not Rise’s, not any of the billions of girls throwing themselves at him, only his.

He must have been thinking about that a little too hard, because the next thing he saw was a concerned stare. 

“Hey, are you alright? You’re looking pretty red. If you need some water or anything I can get you s-”

“I’m fine!” He spat out a bit too quickly, which only made the concerned stare morph into one of straight up confusion. Red? He was visibly blushing?? He’d definitely have to find a way to mentally justify that later, but for now he decided to focus on whatever Yu had said.

..Which he’d completely forgotten amidst the chaos.

“Now, um, what were we talking about..?” Yosuke was now avoiding looking at Yu like his life depended on it, and he could only imagine how much more confused Yu had gotten. He was confused himself; how had a simple contact name gotten him so worked up? It’s not like it was a girl either, it was _Yu._ So why— Gah, he didn’t have time to think about this. It was.. just a reaction. It didn’t have to mean anything, right?

“I asked you which of the girls I should tell about your idea. I really don’t want any of them to misinterpret it, that would only make everything worse.” Right, they were talking about him getting a fake girlfriend to let Rise down easily. He took a deep breath and tried to remove any thoughts of what had just happened out of his head, and somehow managed to formulate something comprehensible.

“I’m not sure. That sort of thing is super chichè though, there’s no way it can actually lead to anything.”

“I know, I’m just worried. I really don’t want to have to reject anyone directly.”

“You’re really afraid of hurting anyone’s feelings, aren’t you Par- um- _Yu_?” Not being able to use the nickname (or more accurately; forcing himself to not use the nickname due to the ..reaction he’d had a few moments prior) he used for Yu only made Yosuke realize just how infrequently he actually used his name. The word ‘Yu’ didn’t feel natural to say at all— it had always been Partner. Yosuke could only hope that he’d forget about the stupid contact name thing soon enough so that he could go back to using partner as soon as possible.

“Are you sure you’re doing alright?” Yu asked, conveniently dodging the question. “You said my name. You never do that unless you’re upset.” Yu sounded really worried for him, and Yosuke was shocked. He really cared that much about a simple vocabulary change?

“I’m fine, I promise. I just- um-” There was no way in hell that he was going to explain why he’d decided against using the nickname, so he instead forced out a lie. “- didn’t even notice..? It’s dumb anyways, I should probably stop using it.” That part wasn’t entirely a lie; he’d been meaning to stop calling Yu that for ages. Besides, the more he used it the more it started to sound like a pet name someone in a relationship would use. And that was definitely not something he wanted to think about every time he spoke to his best friend.

“It’s not dumb. It’s cute, I like it.” _What?_ He thought it was _what??_ He didn’t even use one of the designated ‘not gay’ words that Yosuke always forced himself to use, he used _cute_. That was, like, the worst possible word to use!

“Wh- you’re joking, right?” He was almost certain that Yu was, in fact, not joking, but he only realized that after the question had already left his mouth.

“No, I’m not. Why would I be?”

“Because that sounds-!!” Yosuke looked over at Yu, who didn’t say anything, and decided that saying anything more on the subject would only make it worse. He still couldn’t quite get it out of his head, though, and it was making his heart do things that it really shouldn’t have been doing over a guy. He once again brushed it off as ‘just a reaction that didn’t have to mean anything,’ but he didn’t completely believe that. Once again he’d have to find some sort of justification later, but he had to focus on the conversation at hand.

“But, um, if you don’t want to lead anyone on you just gotta ask someone you know doesn’t have feelings for you. Like, a guy or something. Well any guy except Kanji, cuz, you know..” That last part was meant to be a joke, but Yu certainly didn’t take it that way. He was glaring yet again, and it was just as cold and terrifying as the last time. Neither of them said anything, and that was somehow worse than Yu just straight up insulting him. What was up with him today? Had everything with Rise really affected him that much? Yosuke’s natural instinct was to immediately blame himself for anything bad happening, but this time that didn’t work. He didn’t understand _why_ Yu was even mad in the first place, after all, so he couldn’t blame himself for it.

He was frantically trying to come up with something to say, whether it be an apology or awkwardly laughing it off and hoping that Yu didn’t kill him, but surprisingly his partner was the one to speak up first. 

“Okay, then about you?”

“Huh?” He.. misheard that, right?

“What if I told Rise I was dating you?”

“WHA- NO!” Was his instinctive reaction. He barely had any chance to process the question; it really only took the words ‘you’ and ‘boyfriend’ coming out of Yu’s mouth to make him object. Although if he actually did have time to think it through, the answer wouldn’t have been much different. It was Rise he was telling, after all. There’s no way that he could tell the girl of his dreams that he had a _boyfriend_! She (probably) had a low enough opinion of him already, and that would only make it worse!

“Aw. Why not?” Yosuke hated the way he sounded genuinely disappointed in his refusal. Hell, Yosuke hated how quickly he’d resorted to asking him in the first place. There wasn’t even an attempt to find anyone else; it had gone straight to him. Why was he so okay with this? Did he not see just how weird it was? Was it another one of his jokes that managed to perfectly masquerade itself as a serious statement? 

He’d gotten so lost in trying to decipher the mysteries of the silver haired dork next to him that said dork started looking at him funny, so he had to say something in order to not be awkward.

“Because duh! You’re- we’re-” _We’re both guys, you idiot_ is what he tried to say, but he realized that it was hypocritical. He’s told Yu to ask a guy, after all. But he didn’t mean to ask him!!

“We’re what, Yosuke?”

“You’re my Partner! It would be so weird to have to.. you know!! I don’t want to think of you like that!” It had become less about losing his chances with Rise at this point, and more about not having to pretend to date Yu. He knew that it would most likely be a one time lie and nothing more than that, but the fear that they would have to actually live up to their words was more than enough to make him refuse. 

“Why would it be weird? You said to ask someone who doesn’t have feelings for me, and I assume that you don’t. That is, unless..”

“ _No!”_

“Aw. How unfortunate.” _It was just another one of his stupid jokes,_ Yosuke reminded himself. It didn’t mean anything beyond that. It couldn’t have meant anything beyond that, because he wasn’t sure what to do if it did. “You don’t have to if you’re not comfortable, though. I could always ask someone else.” Right, he could always ask someone else. It’s not like it was going to be the end of the world if he refused. But even despite knowing that, there was something in the back of his heart that was telling him to say yes. It would be a lot easier to believe that he was dating Yu than some random guy, after all.

Yosuke was conflicted. Because on one hand this was the gayest thing in the entire world, and that was not something he wanted to think about every time he hung out with his best friend. But on the other hand, this was just to help him out. It’s not like they were actually dating or anything, right? Besides, the whole point of Yu asking him in the first place was that they _didn’t_ have feelings for each other, right? Plus he’d only be telling Rise— the rest of the team would have no idea. Yosuke wouldn’t have even considered saying yes if he was telling the rest of the group; Chie never would have let him live it down. After silently admitting to himself that his chances with Rise were almost nonexistent, especially with the way she threw herself onto Yu at every given occasion, and slowly started to come to a decision.

He was going to do it. It was just to help out his Partner, after all. What kind of best friend would he be if he stood by while he suffered like this?

“Fine, I’ll do it. But _no_ weird shit! You’re already way too comfortable joking about it so I better not hear anything else come from your mouth about this. And you’re _only_ telling Rise, got it?!” He had to almost force the words out of his mouth, but thankfully he managed to say it all before changing his mind and taking it back. He expected Yu to be thankful and smile, or at least a sort of half smile that he sometimes gave instead of a full one, but instead he was just staring, confused.

“You actually agreed to that? I thought you were going to punch me.” He said it so matter-of-factly that Yosuke couldn’t help but laugh. 

“And I will if you don’t just hurry up and tell her already! God, I can’t believe I’m actually doing this. She’s going to think I’m- Ugh!”

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. Seriously, it’s not that big of a deal.” 

“No, it’s okay. It’s not like we’re actually dating or anything, it’s just a lie you’re telling her.” It was just a lie. It didn’t have to mean anything. He wasn’t going to let it mean anythingz

“Yeah, you’re right. I just didn’t expect you to actually agree.” He paused, gave a genuine smile that he didn’t seem to see too often, and added, “Thank you, Yosuke.” Immediately, this whole thing was worth it. Yu was looking at him with so much gratitude that the negatives of the whole situation dissipated into nothingness, and it was hard to believe that he’d ever debated saying no.

“It’s no problem. Now hurry up and tell her before I change my mind.”

“Alright then.” Yu unlocked his phone, and started to type out a response to her original question. Yosuke watched him intently, wanting to make sure that he didn’t type something even more embarrassing than it had to be. Though he wasn’t sure how it would even be possible to make this more mortifying than it already was, he was certain that Yu could find a way.

Thankfully his partner seemed to value his sanity over a joke, and only typed out the bare minimum required for Rise to understand the situation. It was painful to read, almost wincing as his name came up right next to the word ‘boyfriend.’ He reminded himself that this was all one big lie and that there was no truth to the statement whatsoever, but that didn’t help the weird feelings bubbling up in his chest.

“Does this look alright?” He looked up at Yosuke, not knowing that he’d been secretly reading over his shoulder the whole time. There was no way that he was going to read that whole thing again— he’d probably melt into the ground if he had to read the word boyfriend next to his name again. So he simply nodded, and Yu clicked send on the text. 

There really was no turning back now, huh?

Yosuke could feel his heart beating quickly in his chest, and he had to repeatedly remind himself that it had absolutely _nothing_ to do with the fact that he was now ‘dating’ his best friend. No, it was about Rise’s reaction and her reaction exclusively. What if she thought he was gross or something? The thought hadn’t really occurred to him until just now, but now it was the only thing he could think about.

It felt like ages before she actually responded, though maybe that was just Yosuke’s panic making things feel longer than they were.

Rise: omg rlly? :O i didnt expect that from yoske-senpai. Congrats tho!!!!

They both let out a long sigh of relief as they read that response over. Okay, at least she didn’t completely hate him. It was actually a pleasant surprise if he was being honest; he hadn’t expected her to be anywhere near that happy about it.

“Thank you again. You really didn’t have to do that.” Yu was smiling at him again, and he made sure to take a mental note to remember it. He couldn’t help himself, it was just too _endearing_ to look at.

“It’s no problem, Partner.” He smiled back, largely unintentionally, after observing the amazing sight that he’d just witnessed.

“Now what did _you_ get on that test?”

“Well, uh, about that..”


	2. Flowers, Lockets, and Cats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s Yu’s birthday, and Yosuke only bought Yu a gift card.
> 
> Unfortunately, Rise insists that he buy something more romantic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m gonna be honest this chapter is entirely skippable. This doesn’t have a lot of development or important plot points and it’s kinda just a filler chapter.
> 
> Also Yu isn’t in it until the last 500 words lmao. It’s mostly just Yosuke and Rise.
> 
> ALSO I AM SO SORRY IF YOU SPEAK FRENCH AND OR JAPANESE I GOT REALLY LAZY WITH THE STORE NAMES 💀💀💀

Much to Yosuke’s relief, pretending to date Yu was almost the exact same as just being his friend. There were a couple unpleasant times in which they’d had to hold hands or rest on each other’s shoulders when Rise was around for believability’s sake, but other than that nothing had really changed. 

Today, to his surprise, seemed to be no different. It was Yu’s birthday, and nothing had happened that wouldn’t have if they weren’t in some sort of relationship. No jokes about them going on a birthday date, no winks or nudges from a certain idol, nothing. 

Yosuke was about to head over to his Partner’s house, and surprisingly enough it would only be him there. Yu had specifically requested for everyone not throw him a party or anything similar, and had instead asked for Yosuke alone to come over. That made his self confidence skyrocket—Yu wanted to spend his birthday together. With just the two of them. It probably shouldn’t have been as much of a shock as it was, but there was something incredibly reassuring about Yu only wanting to spend time with him. Maybe he wasn’t as much of a disappointment as he thought.

He probably would have stayed as happy as he was, if not for his phone playing a familiar sound and lighting up with a message. The contact name read ‘rise,’ and he immediately feared the worst. It was probably about their ‘relationship,’ wasn’t it?

rise: hey so whatd u get him?? For his birthday??

Oh, okay. That was miles better than he’d been expecting. 

Yosuke: um.. a gift card?

Yosuke didn’t see any reason to lie, so he simply told the truth. He felt a bit bad for giving him something so plain as a gift, but he genuinely had no other ideas on what else to buy. Yu had said himself that he didn’t really want anything, so he simply bought the first thing he could think of. It was basic, but it was the thought that counted, right?

rise: That’s it??? u gotta b more romantic!!!!!

And of course it turned to that.

It took everything Yosuke had to not just ignore her and continue on with his day, but he had to remind himself why he was doing this in the first place. It was all for the comfort of his Partner, and nothing she was saying actually applied to them. Absolutely  _ none _ of it had any sort of truth to it, and he made sure to remind himself of that.

This wasn’t real, and it never would be.

Yosuke: i gues but he said he didnt care what i got him

Again, a truthful response.

Rise: Well it’s still not enough!! You gotta take good care of him!🥺

To Yosuke’s shock and horror, a strong mushy feeling started bubbling up in his chest after reading that message. It was like an arrow had gone straight through his heart, but instead of pain it was.. happiness? What even was it? He shook his head in the hopes that the feeling would go away, but it only seemed to grow stronger. Yosuke was almost panicking at this point, and he looked back down at the message with the hope he’d find an explanation for this newfound feeling.

Not enough....Take good care of him….. Wait, that was it! He wanted to take good care of Yu because Yu was his best friend! It was a flimsy excuse at best, even he knew that, but it was the best he had. Sometimes feelings were just.. weird, you know? It didn’t have to mean anything more than that.

Once that whole situation was finally dealt with, he had to actually come up with a response. He could (and probably should) have just told her to mind her own business and left it at that, but he was still hung up over the previous message.

‘You gotta take good care of him!🥺’ 

Was a gift card really enough of a gift? This was Yu he was talking about— his best friend. His  _ Partner.  _ And a gift card was probably the most unthoughtful of gifts there was. Sure Yu hadn’t asked for anything, but he still could have gotten something more thoughtful than a gift card! He sure as hell wasn’t going to buy anything romantic, but maybe Rise was right about needing to get something else.

Yosuke: ugh ok fine I’ll get him something els

rise: Oo what r u getting??

What was something romantic he could lie about buying? Hm.. oh, flowers would work! It was painful to imagine buying them for Yu of all people, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind as quickly as he possibly could.

Yosuke: flowers

rise: oo what kind??

Silently regretting not choosing something more simple, Yosuke started going through a mental list of different types of flowers he could lie about buying.

..Which was very small, because he knew almost nothing about flowers.

He ended up deciding on roses, which were probably the most clichè and boring option. Not that it mattered though; it’s not like he was actually going to buy them.

Yosuke: roses

rise: omg no that’s way too basic!! U gotta get something more unique!!

_ Sigh. _

There was something disappointingly funny about how he couldn’t even be a good fake boyfriend. It was definitely a good thing that this was all fake, because if roses were apparently a bad thing to buy he’d never do anything right. Besides, Yu was so _sweet_ and _thoughtful_ and _amazing_ meanwhile Yosuke had bought a gift card for his birthday. A gift card! For his best friend! He was a bad friend as-is, he’d be an even worse boyfriend. 

Yosuke shook his head. He wasn’t like that, Yu wasn’t like that, end of story. It was a dumb thing to even think about.

Now what were they talking about again? Oh, right. Flowers.

Yosuke: well wat should I get him

He couldn’t have cared less in all honesty, but he needed to pretend that he did so that he and Yu’s relationship was believable. He was already a bad friend, and messing up the one nice thing he’d actually done for Yu would make only him worse.

rise: wait I know a rlly good flower shop in okina!! I can tAke you!!!!

Oh goddamnit. 

Of course he’d managed to pick the one thing to lie about buying that would escalate the situation into something like this.

An overwhelming majority of his brain was telling him to just come up with an excuse not to go, but there was a tiny part that was wondering what would happen if he just went anyway. It’s not like Yu would ever know he had the choice and- Ugh, why was he even thinking about this? It was all fake, and Yu would only be creeped out by any sort of romantic gift. He decided to ignore the part of his brain that for whatever reason wanted to go with her, and focused on typing out a reply. 

Yosuke: srry i cant 

It was basic, but hopefully she wouldn’t ask anything el-

Rise: why? :(

And, of course she did. That wasn’t too much of a hurdle, though; all he needed to do was spout out some random lie.

Yosuke: its probs expensive and i only hav enuf 4 junes flowers

That wasn’t too far off from the truth, now that he was thinking about it. He’d just spent a majority of his paycheck money on some new CDs last week, so there wasn’t much left at all. Plus, a shop dedicated to flowers exclusively sounded like something way out of his price range, especially considering that he was buying them for a boyfriend that he  _ didn’t have.  _

rise: ok but what if i paid? i want u to get him nice flowers🥺 he deserves them 🥺

…

There really was no escaping this, huh? 

He shouldn’t have considered it before, and he definitely shouldn’t have been considering it now. Their ‘relationship’ was all a lie, after all, so there was no need to buy a romantic gift. Yu would give him some weird stare at best, and be mad at him at worst.

But it would be incredibly hard to find another excuse at this point, and he didn’t want Rise to get suspicious. And it’s not like he even had to give him the flowers, right? He could just hide them somewhere or give them to someone he actually wanted to go out with. She would never know.

Okay, fine, whatever. He’ll accept the invitation and buy the stupid flowers. God, he really should have considered this sort of stuff happening when he agreed to this whole fake dating thing. Oh well, there wasn’t any point in dwelling on the past. What’s done was done, and now he had to face the consequences.

Yosuke: oh, okay, sure

He probably should have thanked her for agreeing to pay, he realized after sending the text. Oh well, he could do that later.

Rise: omg yay!! What time should we meet up???

Yosuke: i was about to leave for yus so im ready whenever

Oh, right, Yu. He was definitely going to be late with the whole Okina thing, and that’s something he should have thought about before agreeing to it. It was his  _ birthday _ , and Yu specifically requested to only spend time with him. And he was going to be at least an hour late, factoring in the train rides and the actual shopping time. He felt bad, but not just in an ‘oh, oops,’ way. There was a growing sinking feeling in his stomach, and his mind filled with feelings of worthlessness.

Yu wouldn’t be late like this. He would have been early if anything, and he would have said no to Rise’s offer in the first place. Yu wouldn’t have been selfish enough to put a trip to buy  _ flowers _ for their  _ fake relationship  _ over spending time with him on his birthday. 

Yosuke noticed another notification from Rise, but decided to prioritize telling Yu about everything first. It was the least he could do, after all. He opened up Yu’s contact, and started typing up a message that somehow had even worse grammar than normal.

Yosuke: ok prtnr ur going to h8 me but im gona be late rise iz dragging me 2 okina 2 go by flowers for u

It was only a few seconds after he pressed send did he realize his mistake. 

He’d just  _ told Yu about the flowers.  _

The disappointed sigh he made to himself was so loud that he’s pretty sure Yu could have heard it through the phone.

partner: Aww, how cute.

Of course he’d call it cute, teasing jerk. 

Just like the last time Yu had called something he’d done cute, his Partner nickname, it made his stomach feel all mushy and strange. Why did this keep happening? It was just Yu! It’s not like it was some girl- and hell, even that would be weird! Guys weren’t supposed to get flustered like this, that was the girls job! 

Yosuke: shut up!! 

partner: :(

Yosuke: but yeah im rlly srry ab that i promiz ill try n hurry

partner: Oh don’t worry about it, you’re fine. 

Yosuke didn’t completely believe that, but tried to push his insecurities aside for once. It was just one store, it couldn’t take that long.

Yosuke: oh ok ty prtner 

partner: Of course. Anything for my boyfriend.

He looked away from his phone screen to do a quick check and phew, Yu calling him that hadn’t made him feel the same fluttery sensations as earlier. That meant that it had to be some weird coincidence, right? He hoped so.

Yosuke: i hate you

Now that that was taken care of, he switched back over to Rise’s contact and looked at the notification.

rise: so is now good? Im almost ready so i can b there in like 10 mins. 

Yosuke: yeah that’s good. Do u know the train skedule?

rise: um i think the next one comes in like 20 mins?? I’ll check jus to b sure.

About a minute passed by, and then Rise messaged him again.

rise: yeah that’s wen it gets her

Yosuke: ok see u there 

He powered off his phone and sighed.

This was a huge mistake, wasn’t it?

Not only was he going to have to buy flowers for a  _ guy,  _ said guy was also a huge tease that would never let him live this down. Hell, he  _ already _ teased him about it and they hadn’t even bought them yet! And he was definitely going to ask to see them after that amazing attempt at ‘hiding them from him.’

Regretting every choice he’d ever made to lead up to this moment, Yosuke grabbed his phone and the gift card he’d bought, tucking them into his pocket. He grabbed his wallet as well, because he felt bad making Rise pay for everything _.  _ Even if he wouldn’t be able to pay for them in full, he should at least have enough to split the cost evenly between them. Once that was taken care of he got on his bike, and— ow, it hot outside. That should have been a given, it being summer and all, but he was so distracted by everything else that he’d completely forgotten. At least the station wasn’t too far, right? He knew the way there by heart from he and Yu’s occasional outings to Okina, so hopefully he’d manage to get there on time. He started pedaling with that hope in his mind.

—

To some miracle, he didn’t crash, and nor was he late. Rise didn’t appear to be there yet, and it was a total shock. Wow, at least he hadn’t completely messed up  _ one _ thing today.

“Yosuke-Senpai!” Yosuke turned around to see a familiar smiling face not too long after he arrived at the station. Rise looked almost completely different than normal, as hair was stuffed into a hot pink beanie and she wasn’t wearing any makeup. It was probably so that the chances of her being recognized by fans were slimmer, he realized. “I practically ran here, I’m so excited!” She was beaming, and he would have commented on how cute she looked if it weren’t for her thinking she had a boyfriend.

“Oh, hi! And me too, I’m glad you had this idea.” He definitely couldn’t relate, but he didn’t want her to know that, especially with how overjoyed she seemed about the whole thing. He just had to suck it up and pretend for a little while.

“Aww, you’re excited to buy him flowers! That’s so sweet, I’m sure he’ll love them!” She spoke just as excitedly as before, and it made Yosuke question just how quickly she’d gotten over her crush. It hadn’t been that long since he’d started ‘dating’ Yu, so she seemed to have moved on rather quickly. Maybe she was just faking her happiness, but Yosuke didn’t think that was the case. If she were just pretending then she wouldn’t have suggested that he get a different type of flowers in the first place, and definitely not invited him to Okina. That, or maybe she was just really good at acting. She was an idol after all— she was probably used to it.

For once, he decided not to let his curiosity get the better of him. If she still was harboring feelings for him that would only rub salt in the wound, and he definitely didn’t want to see her hurt.

After a few more minutes of waiting, the train rolled into the station. Thankfully they were some of the first people to get on, so they managed to find a seat next to each other. In literally any other circumstances he would have been ecstatic about that— he was sitting next to  _ Risette!  _ The  _ idol!—  _ Though of course it was only happening the way it was. 

“So, um, where are we going, exactly?” He asked, shifting his body to try and make the uncomfortable seat more bearable. Rise had taken the window seat, so he instead stared at the rather disgusting floor of the train.

“Oh, it’s French. I think it’s called poivre sur.. something. I can’t remember the rest.”

“You can’t remember the rest?” She didn’t even know where they were going? Nevermind getting back on time, were they going to get back at all? He’d assumed that Rise’s directional skills would be at least decent given her amazing navigation inside the TV, but apparently he was wrong.

“Well I’ve never actually been there, I just heard people talking about it. Worst comes to worst we can just look up the directions, right?” She seemed a bit too laid back about this, and Yosuke was starting to question just how often this had happened.

“How are you going to search the directions for a store you don’t know the name of?” He looked up from the ground and over at Rise, who didn’t seem nearly as worried as he was.

“Well, uh, we’ll figure something out!” 

Yosuke reminded himself to never let Rise handle directions again.

Neither of them spoke for a bit, not that Yosuke minded. He knew absolutely nothing about flowers or anything of the sort, and being forced to talk about it would only make him regret deciding to tag along more.

“Sooooo.. how’d it go?” Rise piped up after a while.

“Huh?”

“Yknow.. the confession! Who asked who out?” She seemed to be genuinely interested and excited about the topic, and that only made his heart sink.

In retrospect, he really should have been expecting that. It was such an obvious question to ask, and one that wouldn’t have taken much thought at all to prepare an answer for.

Unfortunately, ‘Yosuke Hanamura’ and ‘thought’ didn’t seem to go together as often as he’d like them too. So instead of giving a calm, prepared answer, he started stumbling on his words and frantically trying to come up with a realistic confession scenario.

..And deciding to ignore the warmth he started feeling on his cheeks as he imagined said scenario.

“Well, uh.. um.”

“Aww, are you embarrassed? It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone!” She teased.

“You better not!”

Rise laughed at that, but Yosuke barely processed it due to his mind running at a mile a minute. Okay, deep breaths. Who was the most likely to confess- no, who would be the least embarrassing to tell Rise? Yu, obviously— there was no way he was going to tell her that he was the one to confess. That would only make this all the more embarrassing.

“Well, uh, he asked me.” Yosuke was way too flustered to look anywhere but the dirty floor of the train, but at least he’d managed to force the words out of his mouth. 

“Oh, really? I thought it’d be the other way around. How’d he do it?” 

“Um.. he.. well….” Think, Yosuke, think. How would Yu confess? Well, he was pretty straight forward. Maybe it would be a little ‘Hey, Yosuke? I’m in love with you.’ Yeah, that- but wait, he seemed really nervous to ask Rise to stop flirting with him. So maybe it would be something more subtle, like an anonymous note to meet him somewhere. Or maybe he wouldn’t confess first at all, and he’d simply wait for him to make the first move. Yeah, he’d go with tha- Wait, he already told her that Yu had been the one to confess. Goddamnit.

“Um.. Yosuke-Senpai? Are you alright?” She asked after god knows how long of him being completely lost in thought.

“Yeah, it’s just..”  _ ‘thinking about it makes me feel flustered, you know?’  _ Is what he was  _ going _ to say, but quickly decided against. He was willing to sacrifice some of his dignity to play the role he’d agreed to, but that was just too far. “Um.. he just kinda.. told me randomly. It was really unexpected.”

“Really? That sounds like Yu-Senpai, ha.” Okay good, Rise believed him. 

“Yeah, he’s weird sometimes but I still l- lo- lo..” He’d started speaking without thinking, and now he was panicking, stuttering and probably looking really stupid. Goddamnit.

_ ‘It’s all fake. You don’t actually mean it.’  _ He reminded himself, but it didn’t help all that much. He knew that he didn’t mean it, but it was still painful to even think about, let alone say out loud. 

“I still l.. lovehim!” He managed finally, taking a deep breath in victory. “Sorry about that it’s just a little.. surreal to say out loud.”

“No don’t worry, I get that. You haven’t been dating for very long, right?” Relief washed over Yosuke, thankful that his excuse worked yet again. Yu was probably already upset with him for being late, he didn’t even want to imagine how disappointed he would be if he broke their cover.

“Nope, only about two weeks.” The answer felt so natural that Yosuke didn’t even consider that Yosuke didn’t even consider that Yu may have told her they’d been dating for longer than that.

“Really? Yu-Senpai told me it was about a month.” Shit, he was right.

“It probably was that. I’m bad at remembering things, haha.” Rise looked at him a bit strangely, but she didn’t say anything about it. Thank god, he was saved once again. He really had to get better at this whole fake relationship thing.

They continued talking about random things for the rest of the train ride, ranging from schoolwork to the TV World and everything in between. It was nice, especially seeing as how he didn’t have to come up with any more lies throughout the conversation. 

Eventually they got to their stop, signified by a muffled noise from the loudspeakers, and they shuffled out of the cramped train station together.

“Okay so.. you do know where we’re going, right?” He asked as soon as they were out of the crowd. He was sincerely hoping that she did, though he didn’t have much faith in it.

“More or less.”

“That’s reassuring,” he mumbled to himself, sarcastically. Rise took his hand and— wait, she was  _ holding his hand _ . Maybe it was just him getting a little too into the character of being Yu’s boyfriend, but it didn’t feel as amazing as he thought it would. It didn’t feel like Risette, the idol he’d been mindlessly drooling over for god knows how long doing it, it was just Rise. His close friend. 

She led him past the usual stores he’d been to a million times and down into a part of Okina that he’d rarely ever seen. It was unfamiliar but in a good sort of way, and he made a mental note to visit some of the more interesting shops on his next outing there. They kept walking, now in a part of the city that Yosuke was completely unfamiliar with, until finally they reached a decently sized building with a sign reading ‘Poivre Sur Frites Fleurs’ with small French flags scattered throughout it. It seemed nice, but the general vibe of the store alone was enough to make him feel bad for Rise’s wallet.

Yosuke pushed the door open quickly to get this over with as soon as possible, and immediately realized what he’d gotten himself into. 

There had to have been at least two hundred different types of flowers, some in bouquets and others proudly displayed by themselves. A large majority of them looked the exact same to Yosuke, but he knew it was going to take forever to sort through them regardless.

“Why are there so many? This is gonna take forever!!” He sulked.

“It’s not as much as it looks. I mean, a lot of them are really similar. I doubt Yu-Senpai is that much of a flower enthusiast, he probably won’t be able to tell the difference between a lot of them.” That was a good point. He’d seen Yu gardening occasionally with Nanako, but other than that he never really seemed that into flowers or anything of the sort. Almost everything in here looked the same to Yosuke, and they’d probably all look the same to Yu too.

The store was organized by color, starting with red and ending with black. Yosuke wanted to just pick up the first flowers he saw in order to leave as fast as possible, but managed to stop himself. If he was being forced to buy flowers for Yu, they might as well be pretty ones, right? He skimmed through a couple of the arrangements, not really finding anything he liked, until he came across a bouquet full of roses.

“Why exactly can’t I just get roses, again?” They looked nice, would get them out of here quickly, and overall just seemed like an amazing idea. Though maybe it was for the better; handing over roses to Yu of all people would be way too embarrassing.

“Because they’re way too basic! Everyone gets roses for their significant other! You gotta at least get a different color or something, or he’ll think you don’t care.” Okay, so other colors of roses were still on the table. Noted. He didn’t even pretend to understand why roses being ‘basic’ was so much of a bad thing, but he wasn’t in the mood to argue with Rise over flowers. He continued searching through the red arrangements, not finding anything else. He had high hopes for the orange section, it being his favorite color, and he actually found something that looked nice. Hopefully Yu would think so as well, and— Ugh, why was he so obsessed with him actually liking the flowers!? Their relationship was  _ fake.  _ This didn’t have any real meaning to it. Yu was probably just going to throw them away or something anyway.

“What about these ones?” He asked, picking up a bouquet of the aforementioned orange flowers. 

“Oh, those are orange lilies! They, uh.. symbolize hatred, though. Probably not the best thing to give to the person you love.” Flowers had meanings? And of course the ones he liked symbolized something negative. Figures.

“Oh. Yeah, you’re probably right. Thanks for letting me know.” They were just flowers, why did it matter!? It’s not like Yu would know any of this crap anyway! Whatever, it wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things. He continued searching through the seemingly endless array of flowers, eventually getting to the yellow section and picking a random bouquet.

“What about these ones?” He asked, grabbing the tag attached to the bouquet and reading it. “Yellow Carnations..?”

“Oh.. those, um.. symbolize disappointment..” Yosuke couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of that. It represented him perfectly, after all.

“Let’s get them, then. It’s accurate.” 

“Hey, don’t put yourself down like that! Yu-Senpai chose you, he clearly doesn’t think you’re a disappointment!” Right, Yu chose him and- wait, no he didn’t! They weren’t dating!

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” He mumbled as he continued searching. Green, nothing, blue, nothing, ooh- those purple ones looked nice!

“I swear to  _ god _ if these symbolize death or something-”

“No, they don’t. But they’re.. well..” she trailed off, and Yosuke wondered what could possibly be wrong with these ones.

He flipped the tag over.

“5000 yen? For one bouquet?”

“Yeah..” 

Yu was special to him, but he certainly wasn’t ‘5000 yen on a bouquet of flowers’ special.

He was going to be trapped in his floral hell forever, wasn’t he? It had only been about a minute or two since they’d gotten there, but he already wanted to leave desperately.

“Okay, think. What’s Yu-Senpai’s favorite color?” Rise asked after after a few seconds, seemingly noticing his frustration at everything.

“It’s.. uh..” What was it again? Surely Yu must have told him at some point. He sat there for a few seconds, trying to remember. “..don’t know.” He said finally.

“You don’t know? He’s your boyfriend!”

“Well he never talks about himself! How am I supposed to know?” He snapped unintentionally.

“I guess you’re right. Hm.. you have your phone right? You could just ask him.” Oh, that was true. How didn’t he think of that?

He pulled out his phone and opened Yu’s contact, typing out a quick message.

Yosuke: hey whats ur fav color

partner: Is this for the flowers?

Yosuke: unfortunately

The next part took a while to type, and Yosuke was almost worried that something had happened.

partner: I don’t really have one. 

Really? As annoying as that answer was, Yosuke felt relieved that Yu hadn’t told him in the past and he’d simply forgotten.

Yosuke: pls just pick a colr i wana get outta here 

partner: Okay, blue then.

Yosuke: ok ty

“He likes blue,” he said, looking up from his phone screen and over at Rise.

“Oh, okay. There are lots of pretty blue flowers! I’m sure we’ll be able to find something he’ll like!” Yosuke sure hoped so.

They walked over to the various display of blue flowers, and Yosuke started to look through them. Almost all of them looked the exact same, so it’s not like any of them stood out to him. And even if some did happen to catch his eye, with his luck they’d symbolize death or something equally awful. He picked a bouquet at random, not wanting to think about these stupid flowers for a single second longer than he had to. The ones he picked were a very dark shade of blue, and they were actually somewhat nice looking now that he looked at them closely.

“Oo, what are those?” Rise asked, noticing the flowers in his hands and walking over to him. He wasn’t sure of the answer to that question himself, so he flipped the tag over.

“Gardenias..? Is that how you pronounce it?”

“I think so. But either way they’re really pretty! I’m not sure what they mean, though. Oh well, it doesn’t matter that much. Good choice, Yosuke-Senpai!” She smiled at him, and Yosuke sighed with relief. Finally they could get out of here. 

This was so embarrassing. This was so, so embarrassing. Yu was never going to let him live this down. He was forever going to be known as the guy who gave him  _ flowers  _ on his birthday because of the stupid fake relationship he’d been dragged into. He grabbed the bouquet, and Rise took it up to the counter to pay for it. He’d meant to check the price of them before letting her pay, but he’d forgotten amidst the urge to get home as soon as possible. 

“Thanks for paying for that by the way,” he made sure to add as soon as Rise walked back over to him.

“Oh, it’s no problem!” She said, excitedly. He still felt bad, however, because she didn’t know the truth of the situation. He could only hope that they were cheap.

“Okay, so next..” Rise started mumbling to herself once they had left the store.

“What do you mean next? Aren’t we just going back to the station?” She wasn’t planning on taking him anywhere else, was she? Yosuke hoped really not.

“Well you can’t just get him flowers! I was gonna take you to another store not too far from here.” She said, already grabbing his hand and leading him in the opposite direction of the station.

“Absolutely not!” He protested. He was  _ not _ going anywhere else today; the flower store were exhausting enough as-is.

“Aww, please? I’ll pay!” She looked at him with puppy dog eyes, and Yosuke had to look away as not to give in.

Though, now that he thought about it, he did need to get Yu something else. And a gift shop would certainly have more options than the flower store they’d gone to previously.

“Fine.” He mumbled, somewhat reluctantly. Hopefully wherever they were going wasn’t too far from where they were.

“Yay!” Rise said, excited that he’d actually agreed. They passed by more stores he didn’t recognize, and he was starting to worry that Rise didn’t actually know where they were going. That didn’t seem to be the case, however, and eventually they came to a shop entitled “Oshikko Gifts.” It looked pretty small, which was definitely a good thing. At least they wouldn’t have as much to look through. He walked inside, not wanting to waste any more time, and Rise immediately followed him.

Even despite it’s small size, the store had quite a large selection of things to choose from. They had everything from toys to candy and everything in between. That made Yosuke feel a bit better about the whole situation— at least he could get Yu something he’d actually like. He looked around, mindlessly searching through a rack of various candies whilst trying to think of something Yu would actually want. Sure he’d  _ like _ just about anything, but he wanted to get something he’d actually appreciate.

Okay, think. What did Yu like?

...Uh….

Well there was… um…….

Did he seriously not know  _ anything _ that he liked? Yu was his best friend! There had to be  _ something _ !

Let’s see.. he liked.. uhh...

He liked… spending time with Nanako…? Wait, that would be impossible to turn into a gift. Goddamnit.

It was less about finding a gift at this point and more so about feeling obligated to find something that Yu liked. He was his best friend, how did he not know this sort of stuff!? Yu could probably name every song in his main playlist from memory, and yet he couldn’t think of a single gift to buy him. He was such a bad friend.

C’mon, Yosuke. Think. What did he do in his spare time? Well he worked about a billion part time jobs, though that hardly counted as a hobby. He.. studied a lot? Nope, not that either. He… uh…… fed the cats by the Samegawa?

Cats! He liked cats!

Okay, that was a start. Although he wasn’t sure how he could turn that into a gift. 

“Hey, you find anything? If you don’t then I think I found something to get him,” Rise said, interrupting his thoughts and walking over to him. He’d hardly noticed that she’d even wandered off with how focused he was on finding a gift for Yu.

“Oh, what?” He had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with romance, and he braced himself for that.

“It’s a little cheesy, but it’s a heart shaped locket. It’s pretty cheap and I was thinking it would be a cute little thing to look back on. He’d be carrying a little picture of you around with him all the time, isn’t that adorable?” And, unfortunately, he was right. He almost felt bad for Rise— she had no idea just how little he wanted any sort of romantic gift for his partner. But even then, he didn’t feel so bad for her that he’d agree to that. The flowers were one thing, but a  _ locket?  _ That was for girls! And even the mere idea of Yu carrying a tiny picture of him everywhere he went was enough to make his skin crawl.

“Absolutely not!” Rise looked upset and confused, and Yosuke remembered that she thought they were dating. Crap.

“Aw, why not?”

“Sorry, I um- well he just doesn’t wear jewelry, you know! And um.. it’s probably expensive, and I don’t have enough money…” He looked down, not wanting to lie while directly looking at her.

“I already agreed to pay for everything, Yosuke.  _ Please?  _ If he doesn’t like it just say that I made you buy it!” Rise was practically begging him, and he had to look away to avoid her puppy dog eyes. 

There was no way that Yu would wear a  _ heart shaped locket.  _ Even with how much of a spiteful dork he could be at times, there’s no way he would take something that far. There were absolutely no positives to buying this thing. 

But Rise was so excited to buy it that maybe, just maybe, he’d be willing to throw away his dignity one final time and agree to it. He may have accidentally told Yu about the flowers, but he didn’t know anything about this. He could just keep it in the bag and eventually give it to a girl. He had to admit that the idea of a heart shaped locket sounded cute, just not when the person he was giving it to was a man.

“Um.. Okay, sure! Thank you, Rise!” Yosuke mentally apologized to her for making her spend so much money on a relationship that didn’t even exist. He could only hope that she got a boyfriend soon so that they could ‘break up’ with each other, but he had a sneaking feeling that he was going to be stuck like this for a long time.

“Yay! Okay, I’ll go grab it.” She smiled and walked away, and Yosuke continued searching for something non-romance related to buy. 

Cats. Yu liked cats. There had to be at least something cat related here, right? It wasn’t a huge store by any means, but their selection was quite expansive. There had to be  _ something _ of the sort in here.

After searching through seemingly endless shelves of various junk, Yosuke was starting to lose hope. Leave it to him to not be able to find a single thing to give his best friend for his birthday. Eventually it came down to the final area of the store, and Yosuke had completely given up. This particular section was filled with plushies, and- wait, was that?

He found a cat plush. Oh my god, he actually found something. It had one pink ear and one brown ear, and it’s eyes were closed in an adorable sort of way. It was about twice the size of his palm, and he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t at least a little bit cute. It would have been embarrassing to buy, if not for the flowers that he already had to give to him. He picked it up, squeezing it for good measure, and started to walk over to where Rise was.

“Aww, are you getting that little plushie too? I’m sure he’ll love it!” She said, smiling. For once, they actually shared the same thought.

“Yeah, I hope so. And is it okay if I pay for this and the locket? I feel bad for making you pay for everything.” He didn’t exactly have much, but it should have been enough to at least pay for one of the two things.

“I already agreed to pay, I promise it’s fine. Thanks for offering, though!” Deciding not to argue any further, Yosuke handed over the stuffed cat in his arms. Rise went up to the cash register to go check out, and came back with another plastic bag.

“Thank you again,” he made sure to add once she came back.

“I don’t know why you keep thanking me, I already promised I’d pay for everything.” Yosuke really wanted to tell her the truth, that almost everything she’d spent money on today was likely going to end up in a garbage can by the end of the day, but he kept his mouth shut. He could find some way to repay her later, but for now he had to keep pretending.

“Well, it’s just.. nice, you know? That you’re paying for all of my gifts?” He pushed the door open, and took a deep breath in and out. Finally, they were done shopping.

“Aww, thank you! Anything to make Yu-Senpai happy!” Yosuke, for some indescribable reason, felt the need to tell Rise to back off after she spoke— Which made absolutely zero sense, because he and Yu  _ weren’t actually dating.  _ Maybe he was getting a little too into character, and needed to relax a bit. Yeah, that was it.

They started walking back towards the station, chatting about a few random topics. Once they got there it was, thankfully, only a short wait until the train actually came. They once again managed to get seats next to each other, this time with Yosuke in the window seat. It was significantly less cramped than last time, which made the atmosphere feel a lot more relaxed and comfortable.

“You know.. I was kinda expecting this. Y’know, you and Senpai going out with each other.” Rise spoke up, seemingly randomly. Yosuke was so focused on staring out the window that he almost missed what she had said, though he kind of wished he had.

“You.. were?” Yosuke shifted in his seat, alarmed. Talking about them dating was one thing, but saying she expected it meant that there were signs as-is. Which there  _ weren’t _ because they weren’t dating!

“Yeah. I mean you two call each other Partner! That’s pretty, well, I don’t want to say gay, but..” she trailed off with a chuckle.

_ ‘It’s cute, I like it.’ _

_ Nononononono _ , he wasn’t going to think about that again. He wasn’t going to think about how easily the word cute rolled off his partner’s tongue, or the way his heart just about stopped beating after he said it. And he  _ definitely _ wasn’t going to think about the way Yu smiled after saying it, stupid and warm and making his stomach feel all fluttery and weird.

“And he, like, only ever smiles around you!” She seemed almost jealous in a way, and Yosuke was confused. Yu only ever smiled around him? But he almost never smiled at all? Rise had to be making things up at this point, right?

“What do you mean? He rarely smiles in general!” 

“ _ Rarely _ ? He always looks so happy around you!”

“He does?” Yosuke thought about that. It’s not that Yu  _ never _ smiled, but it seemed to be a somewhat rare occurrence. He never would have used the word ‘always’ to describe it. Though now that he thought about it, he did tend to see Yu smile at him when they were alone a lot more often than the rest of the group.

“Yeah! He always looks scary when he talks to me. But when he's around you he’s always smiling and blushing!”  _ Blushing? Yu?  _ Around  _ him?  _ Yup, she was definitely making things up. She had to be, because if she weren’t then that meant.. 

Nope. Not going to think about that.

Clearly her mind was just reaching for connections, right? Well Yu was his best friend, so that could explain the smiling part. He decided to take it as a good thing, though. That meant that he was a good friend! But still, he couldn’t quite stop thinking about the last part. Did he really..?  _ Nope,  _ he scolded himself. She was just imagining things.

“Uh.. yeah! I guess you’re right! Haha..” he lied.

They talked about a bunch of more stuff, thankfully none of it being relationship related, and then the train rolled into the station. Thankfully due to the smaller crowd they were able to get off of the train easily and without much hassle.

“Okay, bye! Make sure to tell me what he thinks!” She said once they were off, handing him the two plastic bags from the stores they’d gone to and waving goodbye.

“Alright, I will. Bye, Rise!” He waved back, and she ran off in the direction of her house.

Yosuke quickly unlocked his bike from the rack, wanting to get to Yu’s house as quickly as possible and forget this whole thing had ever happened, and pulled out his phone to let him know that he was on his way.

Yosuke: hey prtner im on my way to ur hous im rlly sorry abot the wait

He decided to scroll up a bit to see how late he was, and phew, it was only about an hour. That’s around what he had anticipated, but it was nice to be completely sure.

partner: Okay, I’ll see you there! And it’s fine

Not wasting any time, he hopped on his bike and started pedaling as fast as he could.

Or, well, as fast as he could without inevitably ending up in a trash can again.

The ride there felt short, whether that was from excitement or him being focused on the events that had just happened he was unsure. Either way, it was a massive relief that he was finally done with everything. No more awkward conversations, no more pretending to be in a relationship. Just him and his Partner.

He walked up to Yu’s door and knocked, a bit more excitedly than he should have been for something as simple as a hangout. Yu opened it almost immediately, which made Yosuke wonder if he’d been standing there waiting for him all this time.

“Hi Partner! I’m so sorry about everything. I tried getting out of it and it didn’t work and-” he cut himself off to avoid rambling.

“It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re here now.” Yu smiled at him, and oh- maybe he did do that more often than he remembered. Yu stepped out of the way and allowed him inside, and they walked up the stairs together. Once they were in his room, Yosuke noticed his Partner’s eyes staring intently at the plastic bags in his hand.

“Don’t get your hopes up, it’s nothing revolutionary.” He really didn't want Yu to be disappointed in everything he’d bought, so he made sure to mention that beforehand.

“You really didn’t have to get me anything, you know. I’m sure I’ll love whatever it is.” 

“Oh shut up, you’re my Partner! I couldn’t just not get you something for your birthday!” He paused, then added nervously “And you don’t have to pretend to like it or anything, it’s really not a great gift.” He felt the need to add that just in case Yu hated what he’d bought. It was unlikely to be sure, especially seeing as how he’d asked for nothing in the first place, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“I told you I’ll love it.” Yu insisting that he’d love the gift no matter what was making his self confidence jump up again, and he was incredibly thankful for that.

“Ugh, fine. Whatever.” Yosuke decided to pull the flowers out of the bag first, just to get them out of the way. He stared at the ground in anxiety, his mind fearing that this was too far and that Yu was going to be mad at him and-

“Oh- these are really pretty.” Oh thank  _ god.  _

“You don’t have to pretend or anything. I promise it’s not a big deal.” He added, nervously. Was Yu even the type of person to lie about something just to make him feel better? He didn’t know the answer to that, but there was a voice in the back of his mind telling him that it was all a lie just to make him feel better. He tried to push it away, but it didn’t completely work and remained there, taunting him.

“I’m not pretending. What type of flower are they?” He managed to look up despite his fear, and Yu seemed genuinely interested in the bouquet in his hands. That was surprising to say the least, especially seeing as that wasn’t even his actual gift.

“Um.. garden..ias? Something like that, I wasn’t paying too much attention.” If he would have known that Yu actually cared about that stuff, he would have actually bothered to remember.

“Oh, those.. uh… Nevermind. They’re really pretty, though. Thank you so much.” What was he going to say? Did those ones symbolize death or something too? Oh well, he couldn’t be bothered to ask. Yu liked the flowers, and that was enough to make him happy. 

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Not a word of this to anyone else though, got it?” He looked over at Yu, and he nodded.

“Oh, and there’s.. uh…” he mumbled, rummaging around in the second plastic bag. He’d meant to pull out the stuffed animal he’d bought, but stopped himself. This was the first time he’d actually seen the locket Rise had bought, and it looked expensive. Like, really expensive. It was a nice silver color, and it had what were hopefully fake gems on the side. Guilt started flooding through him as Yu looked up at him, concerned as to how a gift could make him this panicked. He was going to just keep it or throw it away because giving a locket to  _ Yu  _ was probably the most embarrassing thing on the planet, but now he felt bad for even considering that. Actually giving it to him was the least he could do, right? He took a deep breath.

“Before you kill me, Rise insisted I buy this. It’s not-”  _ gay  _ is what he was going to say, but he stopped himself. That only sounded more suspicious. “I had no say in this whatsoever.” Is what he ended up saying instead.

“Now I’m excited,” Yu joked, stone faced as ever.

“Shut up! This is all your fault.” That was meant to be a joke, but it didn’t look like Yu took it that way. He looked slightly upset, and stopped looking at him.

“Hey, are you alright?” He asked, worried.

“Huh? Oh yeah I’m fine.” And just like that, he looked like nothing had ever been wrong. Stupid Yu and his stupid facial expressions. 

Not wanting to be embarrassed for a single second longer than he had to, Yosuke handed over the locket like it was some sort of ticking bomb.

He assumed Yu was going to use the opportunity to tease him or something of the sort, but instead he said nothing. After a few more seconds Yosuke looked up, afraid that this was too much and that he was uncomfortable, but the exact opposite appeared to be true. Instead he was blushing a vibrant shade of pink, his thumb grazing over the gems on it.

“Um.. Partner?” He asked, almost unintentionally. 

“Oh-” Yu seemingly snapped back into reality. “Sorry, I guess I just spaced out. Thank you.” He put it around his neck, and Yosuke disappointedly sighed. 

“Can I get a picture of you to put in this?” He asked, stone faced yet still completely flushed. Yosuke could only hope that he was joking, but he assumed that he was given his track record with jokes like that.

“Absolutely not!” He snapped.

“Aww.” Why did he look genuinely disappointed??? Ugh, it was probably just another one of his weird quirks.

“Shut up, weirdo. Anyway here’s the actual gifts I got you.” He decided to hand them both over at the same time, not wanting to face the embarrassment of giving him the cat plushie by itself. He expected Yu to focus on the gift card, but instead his attention immediately snapped to the stuffed cat.

“Oh my god, that’s adorable.” Yu squeezed it, and the smile that appeared on his face was about as bright as the sun. Maybe Rise was right about Yu only ever smiling around him, not that he was complaining.

“You.. actually like it?” Yosuke was surprised to say the least, but definitely not disappointed. He was just happy that Yu actually seemed to like the gift.

“Of course. It’s so cute! Oh, and there’s a gift card..? Thank you so much, Yosuke.” Of course he’d only noticed that now. Not that that was a bad thing; it meant he liked the actual gift he’d bought.

“It’s really no problem. I mean.. you’ve done so much for me, this is the least I could do in return. Happy birthday, Partner.”

Yu was still smiling at him, warm and pleasant, and he started feeling dumb for ever being worried about the gifts.

“Thank you, Yosuke.” He said, then looked down for some inexplicable reason. Moments later, he added, in a completely different tone of voice. “You know you don’t have to do all of this, right? I can just tell her that I’m not interested, I promise it’s not that big of a deal.” He sounded serious and almost guilty, and Yosuke started worrying that this was all too much. How hadn’t he considered that until now? Yu was probably just as uncomfortable with all of this as he was, and he hadn’t even stopped to think about his feelings! Just another reason to add to the list of why he was an awful friend, he guessed.

“I mean, I’m fine with it, but if you’re not…” he trailed off. He was too focused on Yu’s feelings to even notice what he’d said, but it wasn’t far from the truth. He wasn’t  _ fine _ with it per se, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. If all he had to was pretend that he was dating a guy for a few hours just to make Yu happy, then that’s what he would do.

“Are you sure completely you’re okay with it?” He asked once again, still worried sounding.

“Are  _ you _ okay with it, Partner? You sound upset.” Yu apparently didn’t realize he sounded that way, as he immediately cleared his throat and changed his tone of voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just wanted to make sure that you were comfortable.” For some reason, Yosuke didn’t quite believe him. He was worried that Yu was the uncomfortable one, and he wouldn’t exactly blame him for that. But he insisted that he was fine with everything, and besides, it was all his idea in the first place. He had to have been imagining things and looking into emotions that didn’t exist. At least he hoped so, because if he was making Yu constantly uncomfortable he’d never be able to forgive himself.

“Okay, whatever you say.” Yu no longer looked uncomfortable, and Yosuke felt relieved. “Soo.. what do you want to do? Wanna watch that new horror movie that came out a few days ago? I heard the special effects are amazing!” 

“Sounds good.”

The rest of the night continued normally— well, as normally as passing out at three in the morning after a night of terrifying horror movies was. Even despite their ‘relationship’ never being brought up, however, Yosuke couldn’t quite get it out of his head. He pinned the blame on it simply being embarrassing and hard to forget, but that was hard to stick to once he had a dream about a certain red-faced Partner.

..He’d come up with another excuse later.


End file.
